1oIV: Cursed
by silverscribbles
Summary: This was a place where no medium ever wanted to go – a hospital. The tip came from a person that Naru would trust as far as he could throw – Mai's cousin. The objective - find Gene. Besides vengeful spirits, family problems, and the threat of the Five's involvement, what could possibly go wrong?
1. Beginning

Warning: parts of this story may contain spoilers for the manga, novel or anime.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt and I am not profiting from this fanfiction. Any resemblance of this fanfiction to other works or people are purely coincidental.

_This is the fourtt of the series, Vesta's Bonds. _You do not have to read the others to be able to read this one, but it is recommended.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Beginning**

* * *

_Mai,_

_Do consider what I said. Try to stay away from this case, though if you must involve yourself, then remember the incantations that you've been taught you.__Raidon's tattoo might help at times, but it's also a double edged sword._

_Be careful._

_Ayami._

* * *

_Gold Coast, Australia_

Once upon a time, when Ayami had been a child of four, she'd wondered why Fate chose to deal to her the cards it had. Her childhood was by no means a dream – kidnap, torture, and abandonment generally did constitute as terrible – but she'd been fortunate enough to be born with the abilities to challenge the fate that her family had ordained. Her temperament, while contemptuous, refused to admit defeat, and she supposed that was how she'd ended up where she was today.

As her gaze fell onto the child before her – stuck in a ward, screeching desperately to get out – she couldn't help but wonder if _this_ would have been her, had she cared just a little bit less.

"Let me out!" the child-ghost snarled. He threw himself against the ward again, only to be thrown back to its centre. Instead of falling, he landed swiftly on his feet. His eyes snapped up to glare at her, glowing momentarily before humming out to its shade of brown.

Ayami cocked her head, eyebrows raised.

"Did you really think that was going to work?" she drawled. The boy growled furiously in reply and Ayami watched, apathetic, as his eyes hummed red again.

It seemed this ghost really was going to evolve. And soon.

Holding back her sigh – why couldn't the world just be compliant? – Ayami stood up and moved to the edges of the ward. Immediately, he lunged for her, and she watched, unflinching, as he was thrown back yet again and landed on all four limbs, just as a cat would. Had he possessed a tail, Ayami had no doubt that it probably would have bristled at her in aggression.

Ignoring his manners, Ayami spoke. "I have a question for you, child."

He was growling now in an almost feral nature, spitting nonsense from his mouth as he watched her in a manner akin to a lion with its prey. Impatient, Ayami snapped her fingers and shackles materialised, wrapping around the boy's neck. His fingers shot up to wrap around the manacles.

"I have a question for you," Ayami repeated, her tone surprisingly placid still. "The woman that was with the girl you captured –

"Wasn't she yours?" he spat. He tugged against the shackles impetuously and Ayami resisted the urge to form shackles on his hands too. Instead, she directed the shackle towards her, and as it moved, dragging the boy with it, he howled in rage, desperately trying to escape. She lifted the shackle until the boy's eyes were in direct contact with hers, his feet floating off the ground.

"If she was mine," Ayami started, meeting his gaze unflinchingly, "why would I ask you? As I was saying," she continued, ignoring his spluttering as he tried his best to breathe. Ghosts didn't need air, but many were so accustomed to breathing in their human forms that this particular form of torture had always been effective. "The woman that was with Mai. Tell me about her."

He remained annoyingly silent and Ayami crooked her finger, tightening the shackles. The boy's eyes widened. "I don't know anything about her!" he screamed. "She just came out of nowhere."

That was highly unlikely. Ayami had used a spell to confuse Chika's senses; she should have left Mai alone for another decade at least. Besides, even if she were to admit that her spell was ineffective, there was still Raidon's tattoo. She'd asked Mai about it later, though, and her cousin had said that she'd felt nothing before Chika had appeared before her. In fact, throughout the entire mission, her tattoo hadn't reacted at all.

The chances of both Ayami and _Raidon_ failing were highly unlikely.

"Don't lie."

She tightened the shackles and the boy obliged. "It-it was an old man. He came and he left the woman there a few days before those ghost-hunting people came," he rasped. "He had a black cane and he drove in on a big, fancy car. He could beat you, witch, so don't be so cocky. You're not that good."

Her mind absently noticed that he wasn't quite as panicky as he'd been before, meaning he'd calmed down considerably. Soon, he'd realised that he didn't need air, and she'd have to be creative again.

A notion sparkled in her memory and Ayami almost cursed. How could she have forgotten?

She looked back at the boy whose words were becoming less and less child-like by the minute. "Who told you to search for a witch then? Was it the same man?"

He smirked, the shackles forgotten, before reaching towards her. His fingers tightened over and over as a sadistic smile spread across her lips. The boy was no doubt envisioning her neck within his grasp so that he could choke the life out of her. Impatiently, Ayami murmured a quick spell and winds carrying shattered glass formed a tiny whirlwind within the confines of the ward. She left him exactly where he was, just so that he could see each jagged edge before it hit him.

His howls of pain echoed in her chambers. Ayami put up with it for a minute or two before she moved the whirlwind to a corner of the ward, dissolving the glass.

Ayami waited for the boy's eyes to meet hers again before she spoke.

"Now," she said, "we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way involves you letting me enter your subconscious so that I can retrieve the memories I want before I help you move on. The hard way, on the other hand, includes you turning into a demon – which will give me something solid to work with - before I forcefully enter your mind and get what I want."

He was glaring at her furiously now and Ayami ignored it before continuing. "I assure you, kid. If you think this is bad now, it'll be nothing compared to what I can do to you when you gain a solid body."

He tried to spit at her.

Nothing came out, of course – he was a ghost, after all – but if it was his intention to irritate her, she had to admit that he'd succeeded.

The hard way it was then.

Hours passed, and the sun had pretty much risen by the time Ayami had left the room behind her bookshelf. She pushed her 'door' closed before leaning against it, resisting the urge to release a sigh of exhaustion.

Her faculties, clearly more awake than her body, alerted her of the change in her library before her eyes even caught onto what was different. Quickly, her senses scanned the room before her gaze landed on the single, transparent card sitting in the centre of her desk.

Ayami took a step towards. She raised her arm and the card took flight, swishing immediately into her grasp. Her fingers pressed visibly against the piece, visible through the plastic, as she read its contents.

_Ayami __Domjouji_, Imperial First Lady of the Caecilius Clan, you are hereby invited...

* * *

_Tokyo, Japan_

Mai was dreaming again.

It was a dream that she hadn't had for awhile but she would still remember its essence anywhere. There was absolutely nothing, and no one, around her. Only darkness. Dreams like this weren't unusual for Taniyama Mai. After all, she did work for a Ghost Hunter on paranormal cases in relation to ghosts, demons and witches. And, she herself was a psychic with various passive powers.

It really wasn't a surprise that she would be dreaming now, but still, Mai was startled every time this vision came.

Mai could still remember the exact temperature, the exact feeling, and the exact dread and anticipation she'd feel every time she stepped into this dream.

And moments after, _he _would appear.

Gene.

And just like that, from the darkness, Mai saw his figure approach. He walked calmly, steadily, and swiftly towards her. His pale skin seemed even lighter in this darkness, but right on cue, as he moved closer towards her, a strange, subtle light appeared around him so that she wouldn't be overly alarmed by his appearance.

"Hello Mai," Gene greeted, once he'd stopped in front of her.

Mai was confused. During their last case, he hadn't even tried to make contact with her, but suddenly, he was in front of her as though nothing had happened. He'd clearly been avoiding her, but Mai didn't want to bring it up. She didn't want him to leave. Honestly, Mai had missed having him around a little. His advice and judgements had always helped her.

"You've never called me when we weren't on a case before," Mai said.

Gene's smile was gentle. "That's because you weren't quite strong enough for that. Your powers have been expanding, so it's a lot easier for me to come to you now, even without the paranormal charges."

Her powers had actually been expanding for a long time now, according to her psychic cousin, due to Mai's exposure to the supernatural entities. It was strange that Gene was only trying to talk to her now though, especially since he'd been avoiding her for a long time now. Well, maybe he hadn't been avoiding her, but she hadn't seen him sinceNaru had discovered that she and Gene were in contact, which was the same time that Mai had found out that Gene was Naru's missing twin brother.

Looking at him now, Mai didn't know how she could have ever mistaken Naru for Gene. Sure, they were twins, but there was something about both brothers that set them as two completely different individuals. Gene's smile was friendlier, his gestures more welcoming whenever he saw her. They might have been identical in looks, but the way they carried themselves, the way they expressed themselves, and even the way they moved was completely different. And,now that she was looking, she could see that Gene's skin was also a shade tanner than Naru's.

How could she have not noticed?

"Why didn't you ever tell me that you were Naru's brother?" she asked. He was so different to Naru; she knew that he had his own reason for not telling her who he was, but surely he knew that she thought he was his brother. Gene wasn't like Naru; he was friendly and a lot more easygoing than his brother. Mai couldn't see Gene being quite as malicious or evasive like Naru was, so why had he pretended to be his brother?

"I was trying to do Noll a favour," Gene told her. He shrugged lightly, in a manner so casual that it was completely anti-Naru. "I knew he cared about you, but he wasn't doing a very good job of showing it. I didn't want you to dislike him, so I pretended to be him. Everyone normally gets us mixed up anyway..."

She'd first met Gene about a day after she'd met Naru. Sure, Mai had thought that he was an egotistical narcissist—

Okay, now she understood why he might have interfered. But why did it matter if she liked Naru or not? Mai knew Naru didn't care, and she quickly voiced her thoughts to the other boy.

Gene frowned in response to Mai's question. "Because he cares for _you_, of course."

Selfishly, it pleased her a little that Naru's own twin thought that he cared for her, but the more realistic side of her told her that it was quite obvious that that wasn't true.

"Noll doesn't like to show it when he cares for other people," Gene told her, correctly interpreting her expression. "And I was so afraid that he'd scare away the first person that he cared for outside family. "Noll's charm is, well..." Gene dropped off and Mai could tell why he had difficulty continuing.

"Non-existent?" she supplied dryly, remembering back to all the times Naru had called her stupid, lied to her, or tricked her. The worst part was that he always did so it so well that she was the one that ended up feeling bad.

"I was going to say lacking," Gene replied, his smile still evident. "But I guess that expression works too."

Mai shrugged. She wasn't going to argue. Shibuya Kazuya, her nineteen – almost twenty year-old – employer, who was better known as 'Naru', left a lot to be desired. Normally, Mai wouldn't feel so genuinely bitter towards him, but she'd only recently found out that Naru had been lying to her for over two years about his identity. It turned out that he was actually Oliver Davis, the European psychic professor in paranormal research who was literally a celebrity in Europe. She'd gotten over it – well, _kind_ of – eventually, but that hadn't stopped Mai from feeling incredibly sour for awhile. Especially since she'd had a slight crush on him for all this time.

"Ayami told us that if we head out to one of the hospital that we'd find you there." Mai watched his face closely, careful to look out for any sign of emotion. "Is that true?"

His expression became carefully guarded, though his tone was still gentle. "The hospital isn't safe, you know. You shouldn't go there."

Mai frowned. He sounded exactly like Ayami, Mai's cousin, someone who was also one of the most powerful psychics in the world. Sure enough, Ayami had warned them that a family of the Five would be there, but Bou-san said that the Mizuki family was the most respected and pacifistic of them all.

"What do you mean?"

Gene shrugged, just as his body faded into millions of will-o'-wisps. As he left, Mai reached out to grab him, only to have the lights shy from her fingers, almost like fireflies in the night.

"Gene!" Mai called out. She turned a full circle, watching as his will-o'-the-wisp faded blew away with the wind before fading into the darkness. "What do you mean?"

His voice echoed, light and serene. It sounded as though he'd moved a fair distance now, but in the darkness, Mai had no idea where he actually was.

"You'll see."

She almost rolled her eyes at this theatrics. "When will I 'see'?" she asked.

"Soon."

Taniyama Mai's snapped open.

She'd fallen asleep in the school library again. Mai had gotten the afternoon off to finish her assignment, which she was in dire need of finishing. She must have dozed off after she'd finished it.

She moved her head from side to side on her neck, stretching until she heard her bones crack just a little. The release of the tension was incredible and almost at once, Mai felt revitalised.

"You're going to paralyse yourself doing that one day."

The voice startled her andshe let out a half-scream, immediately covering her own mouth with both her palms. When she recognised the person in front of her, Mai lowered her hand, even though her heart was still pounding.

"Naru?"

Her employer, Shibuya Kazuya, in the flesh, leant against the bookshelf behind her, clearly having had been there for a long time. His gesture was overly casual, which made Mai a little suspicious. How long had he been watching her sleep? Mai was surprised that he hadn't gotten over there and woken her up she was drooling?

Mai's eyes widened, horrified for a moment.

On the bright side, if it had been drool, she would have felt it when she set her hands on her mouth, right?

God, she hoped she was right.

"What are you doing here?" Mai asked.

"We got the location of the hospital from your cousin just an hour ago. I came to tell you that we will be heading out tomorrow."

That was all? It didn't explain why he'd gone all this way to tell her though. "Why didn't you just call me?" Mai asked. It would probably be best for her to ignore the fact that Naru had been waiting for this phone call for over two days now. Ayami had decided that the suspense would do Naru good and had made him wait. She had said something about patience being virtue, and that she wanted to torture him for a little longer.

Had it been anyone else, Mai swore that they would have rolled their eyes at her question. "I came because you left your cell phone at home again."

Mai laughed sheepishly. Oh, she'd forgotten that. Well, Mai could count on her ten fingers how many people knew her number. Because it was her work cell, she tried not to give her phone number out to her friends. Only the other members of SPR, short for _Shibuya Psychic Research_, contacted her with that, and really, only Naru – and _sometimes_, Ayami – called her. If she got home now, she'd probably only have one missed call from Naru.

Then, Mai remembered that she hadn't told anyone that she was coming here today. "How did you know that I was here?" she asked.

Naru looked at her rather dry look that said 'where else would you be?' and didn't even bother answering her question. "You'd best pack for tomorrow. Lin will be at your apartment at 8:00 tomorrow morning to pick you up."

He didn't say any more and Mai suddenly remembered his purpose for coming to Japan: to look for his brother. Now Mai knew why he hadn't woken her up; he knew that there was a possibility that she might have dreamt of Gene, and of course, his instincts had played true. Mai quickly gave him a rundown of what she'd dreamt off, and what his twin had said. When she finished, Mai took a breath, releasing that she'd now ranted on for awhile.

"Is that all he said?" Naru asked.

Well, he'd said more than that, but there was no way Mai was sharing the first part of their conversation with him. Instead, she nodded, and quickly gathered her books up to leave. Naru stood aside, patiently waiting for her as she packed her belongings in her bag. Mai didn't expect him to stay with her, but he did, strangely enough, and the gesture warmed her.

It surprised her still when Naru exited with her and ended up taking the same path as her, even though the office was in the opposite direction. It was dark outside already, which told Mai that she had to have been sleeping for at least two or three hours. Well, at least she'd gotten her assignment done. Tomorrow, she'd have to email it to her teacher.

About halfway home, Mai couldn't resist any further. Naru had never walked her home before. Why start now?

"Where are you going?" Mai asked. He hadn't picked up anything else from the library either, which told her that he really had just come all the way to the library for her, and now, he was walking her home.

Naru ignored her. Instead, he kept walking.

Mai tugged on his jacket. "Naru—"

"Be quiet," he ordered, and his tone annoyed Mai more than ever. Mai rolled her eyes at him and moved towards the opposite direction, only to have him pull her towards him again. She hadn't known that Naru was that strong, but at the moment, his grip on her arm was fairly impossible to break.

"What are we—Hey! We just missed my turn!"

"Shush, Mai!"

Now that annoyed her. Mai's bag swung against her back as Narutugged her through the streets. The streets were still busy at this time, with people coming home from work and students heading home from tutoring.

One of the textbooks that she'd borrowed knocked right into her tailbone, and that was the final straw. They might have looked like an average couple, walking through the streets, but Mai sure as hell didn't mind making a scene now.

"Naru!" Just when she was ready to yank her arm back, Naru tugged her over towards him.

"We're being followed," Narutold her, just as his mouth slightly grazed her ears.

Followed.

Her mind numbed for a moment, thoughtless, and then, Mai's eyes widened when she realised what that meant. She tried to look around to see who it was that was following her, only to have Naru tug on her hand gently so that she'd face the front again.

"Why are they following us?" Mai asked, speaking at the corner of her mouth. This time, he didn't even bother pretending. His exasperation was more than obvious and Mai saw him actually roll his eyes, which deeply offended her, since she knew that he didn't do that normally.

"They're following _you_, not me," Naru murmured in response.

Flabbergasted, Mai snapped her head back at him. "Me?" she hissed. Then, Mai flinched when she realised how loud that had sounded and she quickly lowered her voice. "Me?" she whispered. "Why on Earth would they be following me? You're the supposed celebrity psychic in England. If there really is someone following us, I think they would be following _you_."

"Think of who your cousin is,"Naru replied, his voice soft. "She's a multi-millionaire, leader of the Five, and has the potential to offend almost every person in existence."

Naru had never liked Ayami. And though he didn't like many people, he seemed to actually_dislike_ that Mai didn't know why – Ayami did, after all, go out of her way to annoy Naru – but it was odd for him to show such aversion someone else.

"That doesn't mean that they'd be following me," Mai said. And it was true. Just because Ayami was Ayami didn't mean that they'd come after Mai. After all, the two of them were two completely different people.

"Don't be so naive," Naru said, and that peeved her off incredibly. Mai huffed, turning her face away from him. Then, the textbook whacked her bruised tailbone again, ruining the affect as she winced in pain.

"Where are we going anyway?"

Naru didn't pause in his movement, and Mai realised that they had completely reached another part of town that she didn't recognise. Everything her seemed a little more elite, which told Mai that they were in a more prestigious neighbourhood now.

"I'll take you back to my condominium for now."

His condominium? The one he shared with Lin-san? This might not be a bad thing, actually. Mai was curious about how the two of them lived. It wasn't as though either of them actually spoke, unless it was utterly necessary. How did the two of them associate? Suddenly, Mai looked forward to their fieldtrip. This was definitely going to be good.

Mai saw Naru focus on the path ahead of him and she used this opportunity to look around them. They'd entered the more private living regions already; there wasn't anyone around except for the two of them, really.

"Are you sure someone's even following us?" Mai asked finally. She had yet to see hide or hair of anyone who was supposedly after them. "And why are you letting me talk now, when before, you made me whisper and wouldn't talk to me about it?"

He looked back at her, and Mai was surprised to see his generally passive eyes pierce right into her soul when he turned back to look at her.

"Because they already know that we know."

* * *

September 9th, 2013: Hey guys! Okay, so we're finally moving onto Cursed. I have most of this one planned out, so hopefully I'll be able to make weekly/fortnightly updates for it. I'll be going to Japan around mid month, though, so I probably won't be during those weeks. What happened at the end of Ayami's scene probably won't be talked about for a few more chapters, because I don't plan for her to make an appearance (bar phone calls and emails to Mai) until Part 5. Hm. I think I've replied to everyone's reviews (I've had a pretty busy week), so if I haven't I'm really sorry. Just let me know and I'll get to it :). Thanks guys!

**Midwinteroasis:** You're right! It is Miharu! I changed it right after you told me. I think I've been watching too much of Prince of Tennis ;). Does this chapter explain more about Yukito-chan? You asked if Mai's display of that power is an integral part of stories to come, and well... I think it is. LOL Well, for what I planned, it is, but my plans for this story have changed time and time again. If I don't explain in few chapters about how she did what she did, remind me, lol, and I'll make sure to include it.


	2. Family

**Chapter 2: Family**

* * *

_Mai,_

_No, Mai. Naru was not just being paranoid. And you know that too. If not, you wouldn't have followed him that far._

_Ayami._

* * *

"I have things I need to buy."

They were sitting in his kitchen now - his disturbingly clean and perfect kitchen – where the island was covered with an assortment of baked goods.

Had she not known better, she'd have thought that she'd entered Betty Crocker's kitchen by mistake.

Then again, Mai thought as she glanced over at the couch in the living room that now carried her bags and belongings, only Naru would drag someone home and then force them to sleep on the couch, so she was pretty sure this was _not_ Betty Crocker's place.

"Lin's on the phone right now. Wait for him to finish and he'll take you."

It took a minute or two for the implications of his words to hit. He wanted Lin-san to escort her, like she needed some kind of baby-sitter?

"I can go by myself," Mai retorted indignantly. "I'm not five, Naru."

He didn't even spare her a glance as he continued cutting the ham into perfectly thin slices. She wasn't sure what baked goods would require ham like that, but after seeing the array of products he'd produced, Mai figured she probably shouldn't question him. He was obviously pretty good at this.

Well, this did explain the mystery as to who'd made the pastries during their last trip.

Mai wondered if it was some kind of stress reliever for Naru or some secret fetish he had. It was amazing that he managed to bake in black trousers and a black dress shirt without getting even a spec of flour onto his clothes. One would never guess that he was a baker just by looking at him. It was actually easier for Mai to imagine _Lin-san_ baking, rather than Naru.

After they'd arrived at his apartment, Mai's eyes had widened to the size of coins when she'd taken in how many different baked goods she'd counted on the table. When she'd asked him if he were thinking of opening a bakery soon, Naru had merely shrugged and told her to help herself. Never one to be overly shy, Mai had dug away at the various pastries, cakes, and pies that had been categorically placed across along the kitchen's island.

He really _was _good.

At least now she knew why he'd snorted derisively when he'd overhead Bou-san talking about the cake she'd baked for the monk once. Mai had irately asked if he could do any better and he'd merely turned away as though he were the bigger person and didn't want to fight with her.

"The people who were following us are gone," Naru was saying, and she didn't even bother asking him how he knew that one, "but I very much doubt you'll be able to make it back here without getting lost."

"Hey!" she snapped, piqued. "I saw a Mini-stop on the way in!"

She wasn't directionally challenged or anything; Mai was sure she could make it from there back to his apartment without calling for help. The thought of rubbing her success in his face brought a bright smile to her lips.

Naru merely shrugged. "Then go by yourself. I'm not going to go looking for you, though, when you don't make it back."

So he already assumed that she'd get lost? "Then I will!" Mai told him.

She picked herself up from the stool and walked away. Her manners, however, dictated that she return to push her chair in and Mai managed to do that without looking in Naru's direction. She carried herself with dignity over to his couch and rummaged around in her bag until she found her wallet. As she moved to his front door, though, her dignity temporarily fled when she whacked one of her right toes against the corner of one of his bookshelf.

"Ouch!"

She sensed a snort of amusement come from his direction, but the sound never came. Determined to pretend that the mishap had never occurred (though her toe was crying out in pain) Mai slipped on her shoes and began tying her shoelaces. Just as her fingers pressed against the door knob, his voice called out to her.

"Mai," Naru called.

Mai looked back at him, a small, vindictive part of her noting that he spoke first, which meant she hadn't lost. After all, it was he whom that broke the time-old I-wasn't-wrong-so-I'm-not-talking-to-you-first rule.

Naru, however, didn't look apologetic. In fact, his expression hadn't even changed, which told her that the argument she'd been having with him was probably one-sided.

And it grinded Mai's gears even more when she heard what it was he had to say.

"Get me some bread while you're at it."

**OM**

Mai hated to admit it, but Naru was right.

She was lost.

Not only was she lost, but somehow, she'd managed to fall over and squash his bread, too. Now she sat here, rubbing her hand against her swollen right ankle as she attempted to ease the pain as quickly as possible.

While Naru wasn't so heartless as to just go to sleep, she doubted that he was sitting at home fretting over where she was, either.

She was never going to hear the end of it if she didn't make it back soon. Mai didn't have a watch, but she guessed that she'd been gone for quite a while now. What was meant to be a fifteen minute trip had stretched out to almost an hour. The humility of admitting to him that it wasn't just a late-night stroll that kept her out so late would haunt her for days.

A shadow appeared by the corner and Mai hastily tried to stand up. Perfect, _finally_ she could ask someone for directions. After having lost sight of Mini-stop about forty minutes ago, she hadn't seen any other form of life in Naru's neighbourhood. When she'd tried to make way back to Mini-stop to ask for directions, she must have taken a wrong turn or something because that was how she ended up where she was now.

When her ankle protested in outrage, Mai didn't even bother trying to stand anymore, in case she damaged it even further. When the figure finally appeared after the shadow, Mai blinked in surprise when she recognised who it was.

Naru.

It was almost as though he was rushing, so Mai assumed that he must have really wanted that bread.

"Yo," Mai greeted, waving at him with a weak smile when he stopped in front of her.

She felt rather than heard Naru's sigh as he looked down at her. His expression, of course, remained perfectly serene, so she wondered if it all were just a figment of her imagination.

"Surely the walk was not so taxing that you required a break," Naru commented dryly.

"I fell over," she felt inclined to inform him indignantly. Did he think of her as some weak girl, always in need of aid or something? Who did he think he was talking to?

Naru's head turned a minuscule fraction from the left to the right.

"I didn't get lost," Mai added defensively.

"You're in the wrong direction, Mai, and you passed my apartment building several times."

Oh. So he'd actually bothered to come looking for her, even though he'd told her he wouldn't. Mai laughed sheepishly and scratched the back of her neck with her hand. "Sorry about that."

He turned around suddenly and squatted, his back to her.

"Er, what are you doing?" Mai asked. This was weird. Really weird.

"Hop on," Naru stated.

As in on his back? Her eyes brightened. A _piggy-back_, from Naru? This was a once in a lifetime opportunity!

"I'm not waiting for you all night," Naru told her when she didn't immediately respond. "If you don't hop on, I'm leaving you here to sleep tonight."

Mai's arms circled his neck immediately.

Moments later, he was carrying her as they travelled back to his apartment. The silence was…. unsettling, though Naru didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. Blushing lightly, she wondered if he could feel her erratic heartbeat against his back.

"Ayami's really good at martial arts," Mai felt inclined to tell him, just so they had something to talk about.

"Well maybe you should have her carry you home then."

Mai considered it for a moment before saying, "If it were Ayami, then she probably could."

"You're stronger than you look, too," Mai added comfortingly when her brain registered that he wasn't saying much.

"Martial arts were also part of my program as a child."

Now he was talking about his childhood, too? Wow – they really had progressed a fair bit in their relationship if Naru was willing to share a part of his past with her _and_ piggy-back her in public (or at all).

They enjoyed a companionable silence for a moment longer before she felt Naru release his arms slowly. Mai let go of him, realising that they'd almost reached their destination.

"That's it?" Mai asked dumbly, staring at the door of the elevator as he pressed the button. She hadn't even noticed him entering the building.

"It's a five minute walk to Mini-stop and back, Mai. It hardly should have taken you an hour to get back. I even saw you pass the apartment building several times from the window."

The elevator arrived and they moved onto it as Mai took in the implication of his words. He'd actually seen her pass the apartment building several times? That meant that he'd been watching her from the window or balcony, right? Even if it might have been by accident that he'd seen her once, he'd said _several _times, meaning he'd been watching to make sure that she was alright.

Mai smiled at the thought, though her heart felt as though it were somersaulting away.

Naru frowned at her, probably wondering what it was she was suddenly so pleased about. She shook her head at him to let him know it was nothing. As she limped off the elevator and towards Naru's front door, she noted that even the ache in her right ankle couldn't dampen her mood right now.

After she'd changed and showered into the clothes that he'd left out for her, Mai came out again to see that Naru was still in the kitchen, now wrapping away the things he'd made before, so she pulled out a book that Ayami had sent her on meditation and started reading it as she sat on the stool by his island again.

It was… nice, sitting here in Naru's kitchen, being in his company.

"Here," he said suddenly, pushing something in front of her. Mai pushed her book aside after dog-earring it and saw that there was a sandwich on the plate. The white bread, though, was a little lumpy, and she realised that this must have been the bread that he'd sent her to pick up. Now, there was a sandwich with bits of ham, lettuce, and tomato sticking out from the side in front of her.

So this was why he'd been slicing the ham when she'd arrived. He'd clearly intended to make her something to eat.

Mai wasn't sure if he heard her thanks because he'd already turned his back to clean again.

You can be so sweet, Mai thought to him. If only you weren't such a narcissist.

Then again, he wouldn't be Naru if he didn't have a bit of an ego.

With a smile, she looked down at her plate, hoping that there would be many more times like this to come.

* * *

- 5th April -

- Day 1 -

* * *

"Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty back together again."

Mai leant forward, her face bright as she nudged Ayako once. "Come on, Ayako. Sing with us."

"Sing with us!" Bou-san echoed. Both of them turned to look at the other. Their faces then broke into identical, evil grins before they turned back to face the front of the van.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder where you are

Up above the sky so high

Like a diamond in the sky

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder where you are."

"Oh, god," Ayako groaned, right as her face fell into her hands. "What did we do to deserve this?" She took a peek upwards, just when the sound had stopped, to see the two banes of her existence flipping open a nursery book to hunt for the next song. Quickly, the priestess turned over to Naru. "You'd better separate them on the way back from the hospital, Naru, or I swear, I'll ride a taxi and forward the bill directly to you."

The resident miko of SPR turned over towards the acclaimed monk and assistant. "Naru! Do something about it."

Shibuya Kazuya looked up from his notes about Saito General Hospital, just briefly, before looking down at his page again. The noise, it seemed, clearly didn't bother him, but it was a completely different story for the priestess. They were on their way to the next case, and it had already been six hours of their road trip, and not once had Mai or Bou-san stopped.

"If Masako were here, she'd have jumped out of the window by now." Then, Ayako must have remembered what she was saying because the miko added, "Though she might have tripped over her kimono."

"I want to sing Baa Baa Black Sheep next," Bou-san said, peering over Mai's shoulder to look into the book. He seemed oblivious of the conversations around him as his eyes must have skimmed over table of contents, and he probably hadn't found what he was looking for, because suddenly, the monk frowned. "Where is it?"

"Here. Didn't you know they changed it to rainbow sheep now?" Mai asked.

Bou-san snorted. "There's no way you'll be getting _me _to sing Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep. It sounds ridiculous."

"And how different is it to the songs that you've been singing at the moment?" Ayako muttered.

Bou-san turned back to her. "Did you say something?"

Ayako rolled her eyes heavenwards, causing Mai to stifle her giggles behind her hand. It had been a long time since she'd seen Ayako so rifled.

The van did an almost intentional swing to the left, crashing Mai into Bou-san. They laughed merrily and merely straightened their book, now looking for the next song rhyme.

"Ohh...I like this one," Mai said, her fingers skipping over yet another. "_Itsy Bitsy Spider_."

"It's Eensy Weensy Spider," Bou-san replied, shaking his finger at her. "Really, Mai. I'm ashamed."

Mai looked down at the book again, just to reconfirm, before her gaze shot back at his face. "Itsy Bitsy Spider, Bou-san. Look at the book."

"The book is wrong."

"Ayami bought me this book. It can't be wrong."

"So that's who we have to kill, eh?" Ayako muttered.

Again, Bou-san turned back to Ayako. "Did you say something?" he asked again.

Ayako ignored him. Taking the hint – of all the ones that were dropped – Bou-san turned back to Mai. "Who cares? Let's sing this one."

"But is it Eensy spider or Itsy Spider?" Mai asked, now frowning a little. "I think in the past someone _did_ say its Eensy Spider in the past."

"Oh, God," Ayako groaned again. "How could you do this to me?"

John-san laughed sheepishly. "At least they're happy," he said. Then, he cringed, as the pair got over their differences and started on the spider rhyme, each going their own way at his name. "Mind you, their accents are a little bad. I do wish they wouldn't sing the songs in English, you know?"

"Bad?" Ayako snapped, her echo screeching in the van. "They're horrible. I feel like I've just signed up for American Idol in Japan, and we're only in the first round, too."

"Hey!" Bou-san let out, seemingly offended by the priestess's comments. "I'll have you know that I'm in a band, okay? And we're quite popular."

"Clearly, you're not the vocalist in your band." Ayako snorted, and not in a kind manner either.

Mai frowned, her rhymes forgotten.

"You're unnaturally snappy today," Mai noted as she leant over to the priestess.

Ayako gestured towards the two of them, sitting together with a book between them. "Maybe it's because the two of you haven't stopped singing since we started this car trip, and that was about an hour ago. You're butchering the English language."

Mai's instincts told her otherwise. Something else was alarming the priestess, though Mai had no idea what it was. Just then, before she could read deeper into the fact, the van slowed down, just before stopping outside a tall white building. Bou-san and John-san quickly moved out of the van, as they were seated right at the doors, to make room for everyone else.

"Don't bother getting out," Naru told her, even before Mai had to undo her seatbelt. "I need you to go to the inn first and start setting up the base there. They couldn't spare us any room in the hospital, so we had to settle for the inn next door. Lin will drive you there."

Mai nodded. She leant back against her seat again, just as Ayako, who had yet to leave the van, spoke up. "I'll go with you too, Mai. You can't carry everything by yourself."

Mai smiled. "It's okay, Ayako. Lin-san will help me too."

Ayako shook her head. "No, I'll help," the priestess insisted, to which Mai replied with a shrug.

Naru turned back to Ayako. "I need either Lin or you, Matsuzuki-san, in the hospital with me. If you stay, Ayako, then Lin will not be staying. The two of you will be lifting the equipment alone."

Over an hour later, between the two of them, they had managed to move only half the furniture. Naru hadn't been kidding when he said that if Ayako insisted on staying, he wouldn't provide any further support.

Completely breathless, Mai leant faintly against the table, direly wishing that she had taken on some form of extra-curriculum activity– sport-like, anyway – for school clubs. Ayako, amazingly enough, seemed perfect still with unchipped nails, perfect hair, and flawless face. No one would guess that she'd just lifted about 30KGs worth of equipment right there.

"I need a breather," Mai panted. "And about 5 litres of water."

She considered changing out of her now-sweaty clothing. Thank God Naru had dropped by her house this morning so she could grab a few things for the case, or Mai would have had nothing to wear at all.

Ayako laughed. Amazingly, the miko-san swung casually down onto the chair and smiled. "So I heard you spent the night with Naru."

Mai choked on the water. "Who told you that?" Mai spat out between coughs. It sounded pretty bad when Ayako put it like that.

Ayako shrugged. "Naru did this morning when you were packing the van. Apparently, we're meant to keep an eye on you, he said. He said something about someone following you last night." Mai blinked. He barely mentioned it again after they landed at his condo. Mai had borrowed his computer after she'd eaten the sandwich, and only through Ayami's correspondence had Mai received verification. Her cousin also promised to look into it and give Mai an update, which knowing Ayami, would come when she felt that it was most convenient, and not necessarily when she found out.

Mai didn't think she knew which was worse: the person who openly ignored her, or the person who gave her empty promises.

"So," Ayako drawled. "How was it? Interesting? Exciting?" When Mai stared blankly at her, Ayako rolled her eyes. "Come on – it's like observing an animal in its natural habitat. Bou-san wants to know too. What was it like?"

Mai couldn't help but smile, though they probably were going to be disappointed. She hadn't seen his room, but she did know about the rest of the house. "Naru's condominium only has books, books and more books. There were no photos, no games, and no other sources of entertainment. I don't know what he does all day," Mai added. Well, besides cook, but she had a feeling he would not appreciate her sharing that fact about his life.

"Read?" Ayako suggested.

Mai almost rolled her eyes. "I understand _that_," she replied. Thoughtfully, Mai pressed a pen against her dry lips. "I can't believe he calls that entertainment. It's a bit like Ayami calling history fascinating." She shrugged. "The two of them are more alike than they think."

"Tell either of them and they might kill you," Ayako warned. "And I know I've said it before, but be careful with Ayami. She's psychotic, that one. Coming from a family of psychics..."

Ayako's voice faded out Mai blinked, wondering what it was that was actually going on. She frowned when she realized that her vision wasn't getting clearer, nor was Ayako's voice becoming any more audible. Mai saw a white that washed everything into the background. Her vision lightened, and before she knew it, she fell into oblivion.

"Mai! Mai!"

The voice echoed, strangely enough, though Mai wasn't quite sure where she was. Was she dead? She only really remembered a flash of white – everything else after that had been a blur. There was this odd, peculiar ticking though, very much like that of a clock, or her consistent microwave that had a loud ticking sound instead of the beep. Mai should know; after all, she'd had more than her fair share of meals from that kitchen appliance, and she for one was famous for adjusting the tunes from her microwaves to suit her tastes.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, noting that she did recognize the voice that had been talking. Ayako. Mai would recognize the sound of her anywhere.

"Oh, God. Mai. Are you alright?"

Ayako's shadow fell over Mai immediately, her body instantly blocking out the blinding light. Everything around them was oddly white. Now, on top of the strange ticking sound, Mai could also hear the rush of footsteps up and down a corridor, and the constant sound of murmuring from the people moving around her.

Mai smiled weakly – and hopefully reassuringly – at Ayako before noting the peculiar white that they were surrounded by.

"What is that sound?" Mai asked. The ticking, something that sounded remarkably like a clock, echoed in her ear. She looked around, but Mai couldn't tell where the sound was coming from.

Ayako frowned at her. "What sound?"

Mai turned over to her, amazed. "You can't hear that?" she asked.

Ayako looked around, clearly not knowing what Mai was saying. The ticking didn't get any softer, and Mai continued to look around, trying to hunt for the source of the noise.

"Mai!" Ayako called, noticing that she was obviously preoccupied. When Mai looked back, she saw that Ayako was genuinely worried about her. "Are you alright?" she asked again.

Mai frowned. Quickly, she shook her head. "It's nothing, I guess." She looked around a little, then realised where she was, even if there was no one around. The surrounding white curtain, IV Tower, and monotonous bed were dead giveaways. "You took me to a hospital?"

Ayako's eyes drooped, and Mai could see her exasperation. "We're right next door to one, Mai. And you didn't respond for half an hour."

Mai looked up at her, surprised. "Half an hour? What happened?"

"You tell me; you're the one that was knocked out. This isn't the first time something like this has happened." Ayako moved closer to Mai, genuine concern set on her face. "Are you sure you're okay? We should probably go see someone about it, though. What if this happened while no one was around?" Her voice lowered. "Does this have anything to do with _that_?"

_That_ was no doubt her powers that she'd used during their previous case. Mai had managed to freeze the spirit of a boy and two human children who were trying to attack her. Ayako had been pointedly ignored all mention of her powers, though, so Mai was quite surprised that the priestess chose now to bring it up.

"That's why she's here, Ayako."

The voice was unfamiliar, and Mai turned over to the door, startled. Ayako fell back, her eyes rolling in obvious annoyance. Naru stood at the door, right beside the doctor, and both of them, jets of black and white, were an eerily impressive sight. The looks on their faces, however, told Mai that both of them were also extremely unimpressed about something.

Mai frowned. What was Naru doing here with a doctor? The man looked to be in their mid-thirties, and was wearing the general white fabric coat, telling Mai that they were definitely in a hospital. "Naru?"

Her employer nodded. "Mai."

"Ayako." The doctor greeted.

Their resident miko-san nodded, though her eyes rolled with apparent contempt. "Nii-san."

Mai's eyes widened. Nii-san?

_Nii-san_?!

As in _brother_?

**OM**

Dr. Matsuzuki Keito stood on the other side of the curtain, accompanied by his apparent sister, as Naru replaced her presence with his own, his face emotionless as he stood beside her bed.

Matsuzuki Keito. Mai hadn't remembered Ayako ever mentioning that she had a sibling, but they all did know that she came from a family of doctors. In the past, it had been mentioned once or twice that Ayako's family didn't quite approve of her supernatural pursuits, but Mai didn't remember Ayako ever saying that she had a brother.

Mai sat up. The ticking sound hadn't stopped, nor had it dimmed, but Mai found that she was getting a little used to it now. It wasn't overly difficult at the moment to zone out the sound, but she had a feeling that was because she was trying to eavesdrop on the conversation behind the curtains.

"Hallucinations, fainting, and at the moment, you tell me that there's also something wrong with her auditory senses. That sounds like a tumour to me."

Through the shadows of the curtain, Mai could see Ayako throw her hands into the air.

"She doesn't have a tumour, you idiot; she's psychic. She sees dead people."

"Your conditioning is clearly flawed. If every person who hallucinated was diagnosed as psychic, there would be a lot of deceased people in the world right now."

Wow. Clearly a lot of brotherly and sisterly love there. But as Ayako had never mentioned having a brother, Mai suspected that the pair probably didn't get along.

"Okay, listen up. Father hired SPR to deal with the case here. It's not up to _you_ to reject them."

"He hired them because apparently one of these people held a PhD and is a foreign self-made multi-millionaire, making him one of the hospital's potential sponsors. Your friend in there is the cousin of Domjouji Ayami, the Australian heiress. It's no surprise that he wants to stay in their good books. Saving people isn't just about having the right skills; there are politics involved in order for us to get there too, you know."

Mai looked up at Naru. "Looks as though brother and sister get along there," Mai said dryly. And it also looked as though the doctor thought Naru was a bit of a nutcase, if he didn't mind making a comment like that with them on the other side. Mai's opinion of the doctor dissipated considerably, and now, she understood why Ayako might not have mentioned her brother in the past.

And what was with Naru? Couldn't he at least respond defensively to that statement? The doctor had all admitted that he only put up with Naru because of his wealth. Would it kill him to be a little less passive, and a little more respondent to the insults?

Unfortunately however, it didn't seem like Naru _did_ mind. And as he looked down at her, a slight frown marring his expression, Mai wondered if there was something on her face.

"Other than the ticking sound," Naru said, finally, "do you hear anything else?"

And what was with the sudden change of topic? Mai frowned at him, ready to question his antics, when she remembered that this was Naru she was addressing and he'd probably ignore her anyway. Instead, Mai closed her eyes, trying to zone in on the ticking, rather than the screaming next door, and the ticking sound was audible once again. Mai tried to tune in more, when she realised that around the ticking, she could hear the murmurs of people speaking, and even someone crying.

"There're people talking, I think, and there's definitely someone crying. But there's one voice that's particularly loud," Mai said, thinking aloud as she tried to concentrate on what it was that that person was saying. And then, all at once, images swam over the black of her closed eyes. Mai looked around her, afraid to blink as she noted that her psychic powers had finally kicked in.

Her heart leapt in excitement - that was the first time she'd been able to consciously use her powers - and Mai's brain registered where they were: a hospital ward. There had to be at least fifteen people around her at the moment – both nurses and patients – and they were on the floor. Mai read from their expressions that they were terrified. Mai had seen movies in the past, and to her, this scene resembled something she saw in a hold-up at the bank. If that was the case though, where was the main criminal?

"There're people in the room," Mai said. "And they're all on the floor. I'm not sure – wait, I see someone here. He's coming back into the room, I think. And -" Mai's voice trailed off as she realised what the man was carrying. Mai had seen too many television shows _not _to recognise it. "He's carrying a bomb."

"Stop looking," Naru ordered. Mai wasn't sure why he wanted her to stop; these people obviously needed help. Especially if the man was carrying a bomb. Now, Mai knew for sure what the ticking sound was that she was hearing; it had to be the clock to the detonator of the bomb. Mai looked around, wondering if anyone had called the police yet. Ayami had told her that while she was utilising her powers, she should in every way possible decipher whether what she was seeing was the past, present, or future. Most experts, Ayami had said, were able to sense it quite easily in most circumstances. Novices like Mai, however, had to take advantage of her surroundings in order to learn of the time and place.

Mai's eyes snapped over to the dating on the hospital charts and realised that she read the date for almost a year ago. The ward number was 26D, from this hospital. That meant that the hold-up that she was seeing had happened already, though Mai had no idea why she was seeing it again. Was it related to the case somehow?

Mai's eyes ran over towards the clock, on the further side of the room, and read that it was 2.53PM. Just beside the clock, however, Mai saw a darker figure, and realisation hit her when she saw Gene standing on the other side of the door.

"Naru! It's Gene."

"Open your eyes."

"But it's Gene- he's right in front of me—"

"I know Gene's there. Open your eyes, Mai. Now."

His tone was serious, much more than usual, and Mai figured that now was probably time to listen.

And so she closed her eyes.

* * *

**September 14th, 2013:** How was that, eh? :D :D :D This chapter was a bit longer than I intended because I wanted to add the Mini-stop episode. Originally, they'd jumped right into the case, but I really missed writing just Mai/Naru bits (the ones in the upcoming chapters don't count - I wrote those YEARS ago) so I added that part. I've actually finished chapter 3 already, but because I know what I'm like, I won't be posting that one until I finish chapter 4, sorry.

Please leave a review on your way out :).


	3. Buzzing Away

Too much inner dialogue in this one *sigh*. Oh wells. Not a great chapter, but I kept re-writing it, and this is what I was happiest with. Sorry, guys.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Buzzing Away**

* * *

_Mai,_

If your consciousness dies then your body dies with it. The mind is what controls the body; without it, you are just an empty meat suit. The spirit is a magical thing - we can do many things with it, but without it, we're nothing.

Ayami.

* * *

5th April, Day 1

* * *

Taniyama Mai opened her eyes, only to be greeted by the face of an exceptionally unimpressed Naru. The ticking noise, Mai noted, was still there, although she seemed to be able to numb it out quite well when she saw how annoyed Naru appeared.

It had been, she admitted, not long since she'd seen the same expression on his face, therefore Mai was quite thankful when the image of Ayako instead splayed into her vision, the miko's face creasing with displeasure.

"Mai! We're going back—" Ayako caught their expression in the middle of her tirade and she hesitated, just for a moment, before pulling the sheets off Mai.

"Come on," Ayako said, quickly moving Mai out of bed. Mai just managed to get her shoes on before her hand was grabbed by Ayako again. "Let's go, Mai."

Mai wasn't even sure what the rush was for.

As they reached the end of the ward, Mai saw Dr. Matsuzuki head out from what she supposed was the office, a clipboard in his hand. His eyes rolled when he saw that she was heading away. "Ayako! She's meant to go for a CT scan! You can't take her away like that!"

Ayako ignored her brother and continued to zoom pass him, dragging Mai with her. They made way swiftly through the hospital with an ease that told Mai that Ayako had been here many times before. Her actions were quite strange, though, but Mai knew better than to question Ayako at this time. She'd never seen the priestess so agitated before. Eventually, they ended up outside the room that they shared on this job, and Ayako heatedly told Mai to go in there and open the door for no one. Frowning at her dictatorial order, Mai watched as the door snapped close, right before her eyes.

Then, before ten seconds even passed, the door opened again.

To Naru.

At the sight of his face, the strange ticking sound returned at full force. Mai heard the immediate presence of the strange noise right beside her ear and she was almost tempted to swat at the invisible alarm.

"How are you?" Naru asked. His expression didn't change, and Mai shrugged.

"I'm pretty much the same." He didn't respond and for a moment, Mai wondered why he was here. Then, she realised that he probably wanted to know what she had seen before, and immediately, she recited everything she could remember. The date, the bomb, the ward; everything she could recall, she quickly mentioned. Surprisingly, Naru didn't write anything down. Instead, he looked as though he were absently committing everything to memory.

She hoped that didn't meant that he was expecting her to write up some kind of report.

When she finished, Mai exhaled deeply, realising how strangely empty she felt at that moment. It was odd, really, because she'd always assumed that when someone passed out, they'd have to be full of energy when they woke up. After all, weren't they technically resting their body when they were knocked out anyway? She didn't feel tired physically, though. It was more of a mental thing at the moment.

Mai gathered that that wasn't a good sign.

Naru must have noticed her fatigue. "Go rest," Naru told her, and Mai nodded. Even she wouldn't challenge Naru now, not with the mood he was in. Mai noticed that whenever she did something he didn't particularly like, he would silently brood, though the Gods alone knew why.

She wrote out a quick email to Ayami – her most frequent correspondent – though this time, Mai didn't bother telling Ayami what was going on. Her cousin, Mai thought dryly, most definitely knew what was happening already, even without Mai's update. Mai once thought that things like this were impossible, but apparently, Ayami's shikigami had the power to transcend time and space, and Mai herself had witnessed the power of Ayami's demons. They were definitely out of this world.

Mai hoped that whatever case they were on at the moment didn't require the aid of Ayami's shikigami. Then, Mai stopped, smiling at herself for her silliness. They'd long solved cases before Ayami came along, and had continued to do so after Ayami returned to Australia. Mai was probably feeling a little insecure due to the results of the last case, and Ayami's response to Detective Ichinose, the man who had accused Mai of murdering Keito-san, the co-owner of the inn. Her cousin had used her political and social status to ensure that Mai be released, and Naru's true identity had been revealed during that case also. It was through that case that Mai also became more acquainted with the demons that her cousin ruled over.

The image of Pinaria, Octavia, Fabia, and Caecilia echoed in Mai's mind and she almost shivered. Of the seven shikigami supposedly ruled by Ayami, Mai had met four, and she was terrified of all of them. Admittedly, Pinaria and Fabia seemed incredibly kind and gentle, but Naru had once told Mai that it took a traumatic death for a spirit of the Vestal Virgins – priestesses of Rome – to come back as demons and Ayami's shikigami were even stronger than the average. Ayami had never told Mai how these women became shikigami, but given their loyalty to her and the Caecilius Clan, Mai had a feeling that these women actually served Ayami willingly.

Mai shook her head, trying to shake away her problems too. The history of the Caecilius Clan stretched back hundreds of years. She'd never gone to the trouble of really trying to learn the history because Mai knew that Ayami didn't like her interfering in it. Even if she wanted to worry, Mai figured she'd be better off trying to help Naru find out where Gene was. To do that, though, they had to solve this case, and deal with this eerie echo in her head first. The ticking, admittedly, was still evident, but it wasn't that bad. If the sound allowed her to have occasional flashbacks of the event, then at least that made it easier for them to figure out how to cleanse the spirit of the creature in trouble.

After all, she thought optimistically. She'd been through worse, right?

* * *

April 6th, Day 2

* * *

Mimisaki Raidon's tattoo, Mai concluded, did absolutely nothing to help her.

The ticking sound that Mai had originally thought wouldn't bother her had kept Mai up all night. Of all the things to die of, Mai was certain that this sound was going to be the death of her. By 4AM the morning, Mai had just about given up on sleep, and instead, she cleaned herself up, hoping that the odd sound at her ear would give-way after her shower.

It didn't.

After Mai was done, she stepped out into the hallway, ignoring Naru's orders for her to stay where she was unless escorted by another person. She moved quickly through the inn, trying her best to walk as silently as possible. When she finally reached the garden, at the bottom of the stairs, Mai let out a breath of relief and smiled to herself.

Her stealth, she decided, was definitely improving. Mai had managed to get through the entire motel without alerting anyone in the area.

Humming to herself (in order to hopefully numb out the ticking), Mai wandered over towards the park across the road, sitting herself down on the seat. She gazed longingly at the swings, though Mai didn't quite dare to go on them. The last time she'd sat on the swings when no one else was around, she'd been joined by supernatural entities that enjoyed pushing her higher than she was happy to go.

Mai sighed. Working at SPR seemed to be ruining her life a little bit.

Then again, it had also brought her many friends, so she guessed she couldn't complain.

She looked up from where she sat, startled to see a strangely robed figure stand several feet from her seated position. As her eyes darted further upwards, her eyes took in the elder in a beige-shaded robe, one that reminded Mai of something from the wuxia novels. His outfit was, Mai realised, was eerily similar to Bou-san's ceremonial costume that he wore only wore during exorcisms, just a little less formal. He was, she gathered, a monk, like Bou-san, though this man had undoubtedly stuck to the culture of the temple, even after leaving the mountain. His eyes were what drew her, however, and on his wrinkled face, Mai saw the most compassionate face she'd ever laid eyes on.

Something about this monk warmed her to the bones. He stood with incredible serenity and grace, and appeared utterly magnificent.

Realising that she was sitting still, Mai quickly stood herself up, not wanting to give him the expression that she was being rude.

The monk leant over, just slightly, and brushed his hands lightly against Mai's shoulder. Immediately, the ticking sound, which had become more and more eminent, ceased.

Her surprise was immediate. She wondered if he'd even been aware of what he did.

"Bou-sama," Mai greeted, moving to incline her head nervously. For a moment, she forgot to have her eyes meet the ground in respect, and instead, kept them on his face. The monk's face broke out into a kind smile and he clapped his hands together, moving to bow at her deeply.

"Mai-sama."

Her eyes widened slightly when he spoke her name and this time, she was wary. Her minded darted into any episodes of the past where she might have met him but her brain failed her. The monk must have noted her surprise because again, he smiled.

"I apologise for startling you, Mai-sama. You have not met me before. I come on behalf of the leader of our clan to convey our respects to the heiress of the Peerless. It has been a long time since the Caecilius Clan has received much felicitations."

Mai didn't hear much of the last part. The mentioning of the word 'clan' had already put her on guard. If she wasn't wrong, he was clearly hinting a linking to the Five. Her tattoo, courtesy of the last meeting with Mimisaki Raidon - who was a member of the Five, like her cousin, but leader of another clan – burnt under her shirt sleeve, whether psychologically or not, Mai wasn't sure. Bou-sama had spoken of the Peerless, a title, Mai presumed, that was associated with Ayami.

Mai had begun to learn, not too long ago, that anyone associated with Ayami was generally bad news for her.

Bou-sama noticed her caution and immediately nodded again, bowing both his head and his folded hands. "I do not wish to alarm you, Mai-sama. I am a member of the Miharu Family. I am called Roshi."

That was probably said to provide her comfort, but again, all it did was confuse her. Then, Mai remembered Ayami saying that the Miharu Family were filled with pacifists that Ayami really couldn't stand. Bou-san himself had said that the leader of the Miharu Family was one of the people he respected most in his entire life. Ayami had warned them that the Miharu Family were board members of the hospital, but Mai really hadn't expected anyone in the family to approach her directly. Bou-san respected them, so Mai had assumed that her cousin's caution was probably due to her prejudice. Still, though, she couldn't help but feel just a little bit guarded. After all, she was alone in a park with an unfamiliar psychic.

Even if he was a monk.

Roshi-sama's eyes suddenly darted pass her and Mai felt someone move to stand behind her. Without turning around, Mai knew it was Naru and she couldn't help but feel comforted by his presence.

The warmth from his body seemed to seep into hers as he stood there, radiating confidence and power. The latter was a little bewildering, since from what Mai knew, his control of his psychic powers was just a little bit better than hers. How he knew that she was out here was beyond her, but like always, Naru appeared just when he was needed.

Naru was watching Roshi-sama, who merely nodded politely at him in return. Just as Mai was about to begin their introductions, Naru arched an eyebrow, causing her to stop.

"It does appear odd that you are here at this time, Roshi-sama," Naru noted. "Even if it is to seek Mai out. Perhaps it would be more convenient for us to adjourn this conversation during another hour of the day."

Mai's eyes all but bulged. They _knew_ each other?

Roshi-sama smiled kindly. "I only wished to speak to Mai-sama, Kazuya-kun. Thank you for the invitation, however."

Naru moved to stand slightly in front of her, an annoying gesture he'd adopted and used every time she was faced with questionable characters. Mai stifled the slight irritation she felt and instead opted to smile at Roshi-sama instead.

Roshi-sama turned to Mai again.

"I call on behalf of our clan leader, Mai-sama, to express our concerns in regards to the Peerless."

Again, there was that title. Mai couldn't help but wonder why they called Ayami that, and so she asked. A title like that, Mai generally associated with someone who upheld elegance, grace, and understanding. As much as Mai loved her cousin, she knew that that was definitely not the case for her. A little dryly, Mai muttered her thoughts. Roshi-sama heard her, of course, and moved to explain the reason behind it.

"The title 'Peerless' represents the impeccable bloodline, talents, and beauty of Ayami-hime," Roshi-sama answered. "Indeed, the power that the Peerless possesses is quite immense, and that is why our leader has opted to convey our concern to you, Mai-sama, in regards to your cousin's actions of late."

That comment only moved to confuse her more. Roshi-sama understood this, and moved to elaborate.

"The alliance between the House of Alexander and the other clans is susceptible to the relationship between the Peerless and the Patriarch, Mimisaki Raidon. I speak on behalf of all members of the Five when I say that it is vital that Raidon-sama's favours towards the Peerless continue to be positive in order to appease the House of Alexander. Unfortunately, we have recently received evidence that states that the Peerless is working towards an insurgence that will attempt to void the terms of the alliance made many years ago. We hoped that you, Mai-sama, could move to sway the Peerless away from that course."

So that was why he was here. A rage unlike any Mai had ever known quickly surfaced. She could not believe the nerve of the rest of the Five. Clearly, they needed Ayami to be liked by Raidon, but they obviously didn't care much about what she wanted for herself. Mai had no idea what it was that her cousin was planning, but she did know that it was her cousin's choice to do whatever she wanted. It angered her beyond reason that Roshi-sama would suggest that Mai manipulated her cousin into _liking _Raidon, which was basically what they were asking her to do.

"I'm sorry," Mai began, trying not to let her emotions show. "But as far as I can tell, there is nothing in the world that could have Ayami want to spend time with Raidon. If she is part of something dangerous then I'll pass on a word of warning. Other than that, there's really nothing I can do."

Quite rudely, Mai turned towards Naru. More than anything, she wanted to go back now. Now, she understood part of the reason why Ayami was so keen to keep aspects of the Five away from her. Naru, of course, was watching Roshi-sama in an expressionless manner before speaking.

"Roshi-sama, I believe that Mai is tired. We will return to the hospital now." Roshi-sama bowed his head. Naru paused. "Before we go, Roshi-sama, I was wondering if I could ask you how long it has been since you've moved into this area."

The monk bowed once. "My family is on the board of hospitals, Kazuya-kun, but I have not been here long at all. However, if the information you desire plays in regards to what you are looking for, then I would advise that you prepare yourself mentally. Things are rarely as they seem."

Mai looked at Naru, frowning at the cryptic toning of the message.

Roshi-sama must have understood the look that they had exchanged because his smile brightened. "This case has already been claimed by Ayami-hime. Due to that fact, other members of the other clans are unable to interfere. Ayami-hime has negotiated with our leader and we have promised not to interfere with your search for Eugene Davis." The man bowed deeply, his palms still pressed together. Although she was annoyed at him, Mai's manners kicked in and she moved to imitate that action before standing up straight again.

"I wish you well, Mai-sama, Kazuya-kun."

They left quickly and Mai found herself leading Naru back towards the hospital. As she left, she turned back to look at the park, only to see the back of the monk as he moved slowly away.

And as expected, the beeping sound returned.

The nerve of the other clans! Really! Mai couldn't believe that they'd approach her like to ask something like that. Mai didn't even realise that she'd been speaking aloud until Naru's long strides caught up to her, and his clear, concise voice spoke.

"You were meant to stay inside."

She stopped dead in her tracks and slowly, he moved to do the same.

"Did you hear what Roshi-sama said?" Mai demanded. She flinched inwardly when she realised how loud her voice was and how it easily echoed through the corridors of the hospital. A nurse by the table looked up, frowning, before blinking twice. As they passed her, Mai realised that the woman's gaze wasn't on her, but it was focused on Naru instead.

Still, not wanting to wake the other patrons, Mai lower her tone. "Those people treat Ayami like an object to be traded off. We all know how dangerous Mimisaki-san is; all they're talking about is sending her to him."

Naru's eyes bore into her slowly and though they were expressionless, Mai could tell that he was wondering how much it was that she really knew.

Which, admittedly, wasn't much.

"I don't know what's really going on," Mai admitted. "But I do know that the Five have an elevated sense of importance. I mean, to the real world, psychics don't even exist. How important can a war between the Five actually be?"

A raise of eyebrows told Mai how very naive her comments actually were. Annoyed, she turned back to walking towards Base. How was it that one simple action of Naru's made her feel so incredibly stupid, so easily?

"The Five play a vital role in governing both psychic and supernatural entities on this planet. Each family of the Five govern the five continents and the psychics within them. They might be judge, jury, and executioner, and they might not always be right, but the existence of these five families keep the other psychics in account, especially as they are not susceptible to human qualms. You might have only heard what Roshi-sama said at the start, but remember what else he added. Your cousin is attempting to void the alliance, Mai, that has kept psychics united for centuries. If the Burning Times are repeated, the psychics will have a lot more to worry about than simply not 'existing'."

Well when put it like that, it did sound like Ayami was at fault. Mai frowned at him. "How much _do _you know about the Five?"

Naru continued to move through the hospital, obviously heading for Base.

"Enough to know that it is important that Ayami remains in the good graces of Mimisaki Raidon. Then again, if something as important as the legacy of all psychics depends on the stringent relationship between two people, the Five have obviously not being doing their jobs."

"But how is that fair?" Mai asked hotly. "How can they just push all the blame over to Ayami and expect her to go out of her way to appease Mimisaki-san? You've met him – you know what he's like. They don't even care that she might be in danger."

"A risk associated with her identity. From the moment she knew what position she was in, your cousin fought back. She's hardly helpless and in need of aid, Mai."

Mai's anger elevated at his words. Just because Ayami had learnt to fight back didn't mean that she deserved to be treated that way.

"That's not right. She was just a child when it all started, Naru. Ayami's a victim too, you know."

"She might have started off that way, but her action in recent years spell otherwise."

Her temper exploded at his comment. He was obviously being vague and at the moment, she really was not in the mood to interrogate. She knew he wouldn't answer anyway.

They didn't talk again after they'd entered Base. It was only the two of them in there, so the silence did make Mai a little uncomfortable.

The ticking didn't help.

Eventually, it was time for breakfast and Bou-san joined them in base. Mai watched at the corner of her eyes as Naru left and felt a twinge of guilt at her temper. Naru, of course, didn't respond to her mood, but that probably didn't mean that she should take out her anger – and annoyance – on him entirely. Their relationship seemed so rocky these days. Sometimes, she wasn't even sure what she felt around Naru anymore. Mai knew that she was using his attitude towards Ayami as an excuse to get angry at him, and she supposed that in some ways, he didn't deserve it. At the same time, however, she'd never realised how much he'd managed to keep from her all these years. It was surprising how little you could know about someone, despite having known them for so long.

Mai was leaving with Ayako and Bou-san to have breakfast by the time Lin-san re-entered base. Her mind drifted as they ate breakfast, and she tried her best to numb out the beeping sound. They spoke of various topics, and Mai only gave input when it was necessary. Bou-san and Ayako didn't really need her to participate in their debate. The occasional "Bou-san has a point" and "Ayako's right" kept both of them happy. When she heard her name mentioned, however, Mai quickly snapped to attention.

".., and hospital is one of the worse places to take a psychic. It's not a wonder why Masako didn't sit in on this case. She'd be seeing a dead person at every turn." Bou-san turned over to Mai and frowned. "I'm surprised you didn't cancel, Mai. We don't know what your powers are yet, but you do normally attract the paranormal. The hospital probably isn't the best place for you to be at the moment."

So that was why Ayami had told Mai not to join in on this case. Well, her cousin could have just told her right to her face, but then again, Ayami had always liked to be mysterious - that was probably a penchant for being the Imperial First Lady of the Caecilius Clan. But then, surely a hospital couldn't be so bad. There were so many people there with unfinished business. If Mai could help them, she truly was willing to try. Sure, she liked to avoid frightening things – which was surprising, as she _was_ an assistant Ghost Hunter and was currently attracting spirits to her home to practice exorcisms – but that didn't mean that she shouldn't help if she could.

Shrugging dutifully, May gave him a sheepish smile which he responded to with a shake of his head.

"Have you seen anything around here yet, Mai?" he asked.

The beeping was so loud now, it was almost unbearable. Mai stifled her annoyance at the sound. "Not really. But I do keep hearing this beeping sound over everything. It's loud, and it just won't stop."

His eyes widened in alarm. "Have you spoken to Naru and Domjouji-san about this?"

At that, Mai frowned. She hadn't taken much heed to Ayami's advice, but that didn't mean that she didn't remember it.

"Ayami said that I'd be better off sitting this case out."

And to her surprise, Bou-san didn't add any snide comments about her cousin. He only nodded once. "I hate to say it, but if Domjouji-san thinks that you should sit this one out, that's probably what you should be doing."

Mai rolled her eyes. "Bou-san—""

"As much as I dislike her, she does seem to genuinely like you, and we might disregard her opinions, but we can't exactly disregard her knowledge. She is not a leader of the Five without reason."

Mai continued to frown. All of this didn't seem to be making much sense. "Ayami normally doesn't give this kind of advice unless whatever it is that I am doing has something to do with the five psychic families. You guys said that it's unlikely that the Miharu Family would interfere. Do you think one of the other families are going to make an appearance?" If they were, Mai prayed that it wasn't the House of Alexander or the Ramirez Family. Ayami had said that both of them played in circles darker than dark – the Ramirez Family was rumoured to rule the Underground in America. Mai had seen enough T.V shows to know what the underground was like.

Bou-san shrugged, though his expression was quite grave. "Maybe. What's meant to happen, will, Mai. There's no point in worrying over it."

Well, that was true, if anything. Mai looked back at her breakfast, realising with a sigh that she'd lost her appetite.

She thought that would be the end of it and they finished their breakfast. Almost an hour later, they'd all gathered for a meeting that Naru had called for, and Mai sat at the back, doodling on her paper as she tried her best not to fall asleep.

This case, she had to admit, was not as straight forward as she'd expected. She'd known that the Miharu Family might play a part in the case, of course, but as they were pacifists, Mai had assumed that they'd actually be more help than hindrance. In her naivety, she'd assumed that this case would really only be about them coming in and performing a quick exorcism before they collected Gene's body and heading home.

But of course life was never that easy, Mai noted with a sigh.

Bou-san hummed thoughtfully before his eyes darted in her direction. Mai stiffened, momentarily panicking when she realised he was directing everyone's attention onto her. Even in the distance, Lin-san had stopped typing.

"Mai keeps hearing a beep, right Mai?" He turned to her for confirmation. When she nodded, Bou-san frowned. "Wouldn't that mean that the spirit is going to latch onto her again?"

Naru's face didn't change, but there was something oddly disapproving about his answer. "Possibly," he answered. "She did have a premonition about an event that occurred here a year ago. I did some research and apparently a young man once held up the hospital with a bomb because he couldn't afford the treatment for his mother's illness and they'd refused to help her. The hauntings started after that. Over time, the number of attacks increased, but they didn't escalate."

He set a stack of files on the table and Mai's eyes widened. That was a _lot_ of articles. Naru wasn't expecting them to read them, was he?

Thankfully, he elaborated as he opened a file on the desk, so that was probably a no. "There have been various reports of paranormal sightings at ward 26D. Almost all doctors that enter that ward claim that they've either been tripped or had their tools stolen. It seems, however, that there is more than one ghost causing mischief, but the readings from the machinery suggest that these ghosts are not overpowered, so it shouldn't be difficult for us to exorcise them. It's more their number that makes them unusual."

"It's not unusual for so many ghosts to be attracted to this place," John-san stated. "After all, your brother is a medium and his body resides here; that's bound to attract a lot of attention. Still, though, the ghosts must have held a grudge of sorts or they wouldn't have chosen the targets that they have."

Bou-san leant forward. "You're saying that it's only the doctors that are being targeted? What about everyone else?"

Naru snapped the file shut. "It's just the doctors, but we've studied the readings in the hospital. These ghosts don't appear to be overly powerful as of yet, so the exorcisms shouldn't be too much of a hassle."

Bou-san grinned. "Well, if we only need to exorcise some ghosts, surely this case won't take too long," Bou-san noted cheerfully as he leant the back of his head against his entwined fingers.

"We're here to find Eugene-san," John-san reminded him with a frown. "Perhaps it wouldn't be wise to move along with this case so quickly. After all, it appears as if no one is being seriously hurt."

Ayako's eyes rolled. She clearly didn't like the thought of staying in her family hospital for too long. "That doesn't mean we don't need a plan though," she said loudly.

"Using a doctor as bait would be the fastest way to lure them out," Bou-san supplied helpfully.

Bait? They were going to use _bait_ again? Because that worked _so_ well last time…

They all turned their gazes to Naru, who nodded once in confirmation. "While it's not the best plan, it is one that works," he conceded.

Mai felt her eyebrow twitch unreasonably.

"You're kind of a doctor," Mai muttered under her breath. "Why don't we use _you_ as bait?"

"We could," Naru replied loudly as his lips twitched slightly, causing Mai's heart to skip a beat in alarm; she really hadn't expected him to hear that. "But it wouldn't be safe for us to do that and initiate an exorcism because we don't know exactly how many spirits there are in there."

Ayako nodded slowly, clearly in thought. "They've shut the ward down now. The only people left are coma patients on that floor. We could probably set up some wards and perform the exorcism soon."

"But like Naru said," John-san added, "we don't know how many spirits there are in there. The fact that one of them have latched onto Mai means that they know we're here to get rid of them. Besides Mai's case, there's been a cessation in all supernatural occurrences since the moment we arrived. It appears as though only Mai has had contact with them."

Bou-san leant towards her. "At the rate your luck is going, I'm surprised your cousin hasn't set one of her shinigami as your bodyguard," Bou-san joked.

Mai tried her best not to roll her eyes at him. Mai was surprised that Ayami hadn't offered, too, but even if she had, Mai knew she would have turned her cousin down. Ayami's shiki weren't quite… right. They obeyed Ayami's orders without question; to them, her word was law. Ayami herself had no quarrels against hurting someone to achieve her goal. Mai knew that her cousin cared for her but Mai never wanted to be the reason why someone else got hurt.

"Mai should be fine," John-san supplied helpfully, his eyes crinkled as he smiled reassuringly. "With the last case, she barely needed our assistance."

Mai let out a nervous laugh, choosing not to comment right now. She never liked speaking of her abilities with anyone in SPR. She didn't want to tell them that Ayami had sent her various items and was currently in the process of teaching her on how to manage her powers. She'd seen the look they'd given her when she'd first used her powers to freeze a ghost that was attempting to harm her.

Bou-san shrugged good-naturedly. "Even if something _does _happen, her cousin will come in and save the day anyway. It's not like anything will really go wrong."

Ayako scoffed. "Domjouji Ayami only cares about _Mai. _I doubt she'd left a finger to save you or anyone else here if we're in danger."

"Then we'll just have to push Mai into the room first," Bou-san countered cheerfully.

"It doesn't work like that," Mai huffed, unable to help but feel a tiny bit indignant. She knew that Ayami would always come to her aid, but they didn't have to always point that out. She herself was no perfect being and she didn't intend on relying on Ayami forever (that _was_ why she was trying so hard to harness her powers).

No doubt sensing her slight annoyance, Bou-san sent an apologetic grin her way, causing Mai to feel a tiny bit sorry. She _really_ was irritable of late; the beeping sound was no doubt getting to her.

"You've been hearing that strange sound," Bou-san said, "which means that the ghost has probably zeroed in on the fact that you can act as a medium. If that really is the case, maybe we should have you stay somewhere else for a while."

He'd jumped from jokingly pushing her into the room first to relocating her altogether. Mai frowned, not quite sure how she should take that. She wasn't even sure how she liked having the meeting about _her_ all of a sudden. She wasn't comfortable, suddenly being the source of everyone's attention.

Naru, thankfully, chose that moment to speak up. "If they're with her now then it doesn't matter where we move her, they're just going to follow. If we leave her by herself then she might actually be in danger."

He turned his piercing blue gaze onto her suddenly, causing Mai to almost shift uncomfortably in her chair. There was something almost accusing about Naru's stare that left her feeling slightly admonished, though she wasn't quite sure what it was she was supposed to feel guilty about this time.

"The safest place for Mai to be at the moment is with us."

* * *

**September 23, 2013:** I don't think this chapter was very good because to me, it had a lot of talking and inner dialogue, and I felt as though nothing really happened. But yeah - it had to be written, and it was over 5000 words so it wasn't that fun to write :/ I actually managed to finish this chapter last Saturday, and Chapter 4 on the next day(though chapter 4 is a little shorter) and I'm actually kind of surprised on how that chapter ended up. It really wasn't part of my original plan, I'll tell you that now. You'll understand in a few weeks time (assuming I finish chapter 5). I was in Osaka though for the last 5 days so I've pretty much written nothing of the next chapter.

Also, Hikari Reizumi reviewed and asked about the Five and what makes them so special. Besides Naru's (who will always be perfect, so that's not me writing it - that's actually how it is ;]) explanation to Mai in this chapter, I actually don't really touch on that until the Gathering, but I don't think it'll be much of a spoiler for me to tell you guys about it now.

The Five essentially comprises of five of the most powerful psychic families in the world (supposedly, anyway). Hundreds of years ago, there was war, and after that war, five families were chosen to govern the psychics in their area. Five families control the Five continents/regions of the world (according to the geography that I studied in Australia.)

The Caecilius Clan - Oceania/Australia  
The House of Alexander - Europe  
The Ramirez Family - The Americas  
The Wycombes - Africa  
The Miharu Family - Asia

There's kind of an overlap for some of the areas so the families don't always get along. But anyway, each of these families are powerful, but they all specialise in their particular form of art. For example, the Caecilius Clan is more into the control of supernatural entities whereas the House of Alexander focuses primarily on cursed/blessed objects. The Ramirez Family enjoys their hexes and curses, the Miharus specialises in protective wards and seals, and the Wycombes really like their spells and magic.

That's not to say that other members of other families can't specialise in another family's speciality - Ayami herself is known as a witch and Raidon (though you've probably forgotten) had a demon accompany him in Part 2.

In this world that I've created, any psychic has the potential to do magic. The degree of magic a psychic possesses, however, obviously varies. Magic, though, is something of a dark craft, because it draws on energy that isn't quite natural. Hence, people who perform magic are known as witches (kind of like abominations of nature) and will be eventually punished for their crimes against nature. Every time a person does magic, it makes their soul a little bit darker. That is one of the reasons why we don't really hear much about the Wycombes. Their kind of too busy rotting away in a cellar with their black, black hearts.

That's kind of all I remember at the top of my head. In Eternity (which is Vesta's Bond's sequel that I will hopefully write), the Five is actually really big, but right now, in Vesta's Bonds, the focus is actually on family bonds. :)

I hope that answers any of the questions you might have for now. I don't know if this concept actually sounds lame or okay, so yeah... I'm kind of hoping for the best here.

**Please leave a review on your way out.**

Also, I really did not like this chapter, so you guys have two choices

a) I'll give you chapter 4 by Thursday (if more people vote for this)  
b) Wait till I finish chapter 5 and then you get chapter 4 (I've barely touched it, as I've been on holidays.

A warning though - there is a cliffhanger at the end of the next chapter (probably the largest in the saga yet), so you guys will have to wait if you opt for option 2.

So yeah - let me know ;)


	4. Ward 26D

Most people voted for Chapter 4 to come out earlier, so here it is. You probably won't get chapter 5 till next week at the earliest, but I promise it won't be another hiatus like last time ;)

* * *

**Chapter 4: Ward 26D**

* * *

_To the Lady Ayami,_

_I am writing in regards to your RSVP for the upcoming summit located in Pompei._

_We had been previously assured by His Grace of the House of Alexander that you would be attending the next meeting. We regret to point out that you have not been present for a single bi-yearly meeting of the Five since your ascension of the title.__During this time, you have had His Grace represent all votes for your clan. We understand that your time is precious;__however, these meetings are essential to the continual armistice of the Five, hence we urge you to reconsider your decision._

_With all due respect, my lady, your use of profanities in your refusal note will not appease the other three families when they enquire as to why both the Caecilius Clan and the House of Alexander were unable to attend the bi-yearly summit._

_Unfortunately, "Fuck you" is not a viable response._

_Please understand our difficulties in this matter. We have heard that you have acknowledged an heiress for the Caecilius Clan. If you are unable to make the event, may I respectfully suggest that the Lady Mai Taniyama attend in your place? The head of the Ramirez Family, Don Zacharias Ramirez, has elected to send his heir therefore the Lady Mai w__ould__ not be the only successor at the meeting._

_We have included another copy of the invitation for your perusal. It would be a great honour for our entity to be sanctified with your clan's presence._

_With Regards,_

_Constantine de Ansa_

_Head Minister of The United Collegia_

* * *

April 7th, Day 3

6.57AM

* * *

Breakfast was again a disheartening affair when the beeping sound just would not relent.

Mai had done everything she could think of to rest last night. She'd read, she'd suffocated herself with her bed sheets. She'd even tried luring, freezing, and exorcising a few wayward spirits in order to exhaust herself but that hadn't worked either.

Now, here she was, trying to have breakfast without even a minute's sleep from the night before. Mai tried her best to eat, but with the noise so prominent in her mind, all she could do was lean her eyes against her palm as she tried desperately to rest. She knew her elbows were on the table and she knew that she probably wasn't a pretty sight, but Mai was so tired at the moment that she really couldn't care.

She wasn't even sure how long it was she'd retained that position, but suddenly, a slight shift in the air alerted her of company and when she dragged her head up, she saw that someone had donned to sit down across from her with a half-eaten plate of food.

What on Earth was Naru doing here? When she'd taken a random stroll in the wee hours of the morning, she'd seen that his room was still brightly light. She wasn't even sure what time it was he'd slept, but now, here he sat, bright, fresh, and awake, when she could barely even keep her eyes open.

There was something really unfair about that.

"I'm going to go check up on all the equipment," Mai said, pushing her still-full plate in. She hated wasting food, but she really couldn't eat. To her surprise, Naru imitated her action after setting his knife and fork down.

"I'll come with you, Mai."

"I can probably manage alone," Mai told him. They'd said so themselves yesterday – these ghosts seemed quite pedestrian, so Mai could probably hold her own against them. While she probably wasn't the most powerful of them all, Mai was confident that she could handle the everyday ghost without aid.

"A camera in Ward 26D appears to be faulty. I need to check on it myself."

He probably didn't trust her to check on his equipment in her half-dead state and honestly, Mai couldn't really blame him. Her entire body felt like lead. So instead, she nodded a few times before grabbing her clip board. Just as she was about to head out, her eyes caught sight of his still-full plate.

"Well, why don't you finish your food first," Mai suggested, collapsing into the crook of her arm. "It's not good to forgo breakfast."

She felt a flicker of concern from his direction – which was impossible, seeing as she wasn't looking for him –and Mai ignored it. Mai wasn't sure how long it was she'd sat there for, but eventually, she heard the rustling of Naru standing, so she moved to do so too.

Even Mai, partially spaced out though she was, could see the numerous looks and whispers the employs of the hospital were giving Naru. She vaguely recalled Naru getting the same reaction yesterday when she'd been walking with him.

Naru, however, seemed completely indifferent to their stares and continued looking straight ahead as he walked beside her.

"If your abilities are bothering you, perhaps we can have Lin seal them off momentarily."

It was warming that he seemed concerned, but in a hospital like this, the last thing she wanted was to go without her powers. She was sure that the other members of SPR could help her out, but Mai didn't want to be anyone's burden when she knew she could take care of herself.

"I'll be fine," Mai murmured. Then, a thought struck her. "What about you? Gene's apparently in this hospital, too. Have you been able to sense anything from him?"

Ayami had sent her various books based on supernatural studies. One of them, authored, ironically enough, by an O. Davis apparently claimed that psychic twins had even more of a connection than normal ones. His empirical research had been limited, especially since the number of psychic twins was rather limited. To about one set. Apparently, he looked at twins in history too, and his theory had been proven through those records.

Mai figured that her cousin thought it would be amusing to provide Mai a book written by Naru to describe Naru's link with his brother.

"I haven't been able to sense Gene at all. If the information hadn't come from your cousin, I'd have doubted the validity of the source."

Wow. A compliment paid to Ayami. Mai made sure to commit this moment to memory, because she doubted there would be many words leaving Naru's lips that heeded in Ayami's favour.

Naru, however, had moved on from her cousin. He paused momentarily as he held the door open for her. "How are the developments of your abilities? I know you've been practicing on your own."

Mai slipped through the opened door quickly and Naru shut it behind him. "We left for this case pretty soon, so I could only practice for a few hours. But ah, it's good. I've been practicing, and Ayami drew some seals for me before she flew back to Australia. A few of them have been attracting some weak-levelled spirits. I've managed to freeze a few of them and I exorcised a few ghosts too."

She'd been extremely pleased with herself after she'd managed to attract and exorcise her very first ghost on her own. Mai had smiled for hours.

Naru, however, didn't seem too impressed by what she had to say. To him though, what had taken her hours to accomplish was probably something he mastered within minutes.

"You've been practicing by yourself?"

There was a hint of disapproval veiled in his words. Again, Mai blinked. Perhaps she was super tired, because lately, she felt as though she were imagining everyone's emotional responses.

"Ayami's seals are pretty good and I've been meditating every day," Mai said, nodding slowly. "So yeah, it's not too hard."

They'd reached the first camera, and after Mai checked it and ticked it off on her clip board, they moved again.

Naru, surprisingly, was the first person to speak. "I have been using my abilities in an attempt to imitate your action of freezing Yukito-chan. It's not quite as easy as you made it out to be."

It took a moment for the implications of his words to register. Was he trying to say that she was pretty good at this?

Nah, that couldn't be it.

"I thought you said your psychic powers were a little off ever since Gene went missing," Mai said instead.

"I'm starting to be able to control them again," Naru stated, "without putting so much of a strain on my body."

Mai nodded, then, slowly, her lips curved to the point of a grin. They'd reached the next camera, but even as she inspected it, the humour didn't leave.

She nudged him, her slight headache forgotten. "Ayami's method works, eh?"

He didn't say anything, but he did cast her a dry look. Mai's amusement deepened as they continued walking. "Why can't you just admit that she's not that bad? You know, she actually not a horrible person."

"Pity she likes to keep that a secret between the two of you."

Mai snorted back her amusement. While she didn't like what he had said, she couldn't really argue with it. Mai would never go as far as calling Ayami a _good_ person and she knew that what little empathy Ayami had for the world was kept very well hidden. Strange, though, considering her cousin was one that was not a fan of beating around the bush. At times, it was almost as though Ayami were afraid that someone would find out that she cared more than she should of.

Naru turned away, now moving to observe the camera that they'd reached. Mai watched him, hands in short pockets as Naru fiddled around with the camera. It took her a moment to realise that they'd actually arrived in Ward 26D.

Mai stood by patiently with her clipboard, eyes scanning the ward. There had to be at least five or six private rooms here, but Mai didn't see any open beds at all. It appeared that this ward, unlike all the others, didn't have shared areas for the patients. While that wasn't overly surprisingly, considering Mai had read that the people here were namely comatose neurology patients, what startled Mai was the fact that beside she and Naru, there appeared to be no one on the floor.

Mai could, however, actually _feel_ the supernatural presence around her, and they were unexpectedly pronounced, almost as though the spirits were right there with them.

Suddenly, Naru's eyes focused in her direction, but they weren't focused on _her_. Alarmed, Mai lowered the clipboard as Naru took a step forward to stand closer to her.

The hallway was suddenly very crowded.

Mai blinked in momentary horror as she realised that they were surrounded by spirits – dozens of spirits, in fact, and in the middle of them all, stood Gene.

"You're very close," Gene said.

And then he vanished.

**OM**

_On the other side of the hospital, at that exact moment:_

"Run faster!" Houshou shouted. He was sprinting down the corridors as Lin-san and John moved beside him.

Ayako, in her heels, had of course fallen behind. Even further behind her, of course, was her doctor brother, waving what looked to be a stack of files at his sister as he attempted to keep up with them. Ignoring them both, Houshou looked back in front of him.

The explosion of spiritual energy caused him to stagger. Cursing, Houshou picked himself up quickly and he resumed running.

Damn, if the spirits could be felt at this distance, then Naru and Mai needed them to get there as soon as possible.

The ghosts might not have been strong, but there sure were a lot of them.

**OM**

Mai swallowed.

She was back-to-back with Naru now, and Gene had vanished moments ago. The spirits around them were eyeing Mai and Naru as though they were something to be devoured. Two ghosts had leapt their way, only to be frozen by Mai before Naru murmured something in a language she didn't recognise, causing both ghosts to dissolve.

Whatever happened to these ghosts only attacking doctors?

"There're a lot of them," Mai pointed out, looking around nervously. Naru felt very still behind her. So still, in fact, that had it not been Naru, she'd have assumed that the person behind her had gone into shock.

Naru's voice, calm and unworried, spoke. "Mai, you said that you can control your powers better now."

"What?" Mai wanted turn her body around to see what his face was like. Was now really the time to be having this kind of conversation? Then again, if it was Naru, there had to be a reason for it.

"What of it?" Mai asked, frowning when she recognised the ghost to her right. It was the bomber from her vision, but he wasn't carrying any bombs. In fact, his hands were pressed by his side almost harmlessly as he eyed her along with the rest of them.

"This is a form of qigong. To lessen the burden to the body, we can bounce our energy off of one another. We can stop the ghosts this way."

He'd said that he could do that once, hadn't he? But if he did that, wouldn't the spirits die completely, without any chance of rebirth. Mai hesitated, just slightly, but Naru didn't give her a chance to voice her doubts.

"Gene and I often bounced our PK energy off one another in order lessen the strain on my body. We would send a ball of energy, amplify it, and then send it back to the latter."

"You want to try that with me?" Mai verified, turning her head towards him slightly.

The back of Naru's head nodded once. "We're going to have to do that if we want to stay alive. The others are pretty far away from us."

Mai swallowed. She could do this, right? She'd been practicing almost every night now (okay, so that was three nights) and even Ayami had said that Mai was improving. Surely she could do this.

She could.

"Let's try," Mai stated, and Naru nodded again.

She had about a half-second warning before a ball of literal energy dropped towards her. Concentrating a bit of her own energy, Mai pushed the ball back with her hand and felt the ball zapping the power from her fingertips before flying back in Naru's direction, a fraction larger in size.

Amazing.

They continued like this for moments as the ghosts watched on, obviously confused as to what was going on. Every time the ball bounced between them, she injected a little more power of her own. The energy ball was about the size of a car wheel now and even without Naru telling her, she could tell that it was nearing completion.

Mai just hoped he knew what to do with it.

"What the hell is this?" the voice of Matsuzuki Keito demanded. He stood by the door with rest of the SPR team, eyes widened in horror as he took in the scene before him.

Her attention wavered, and as the ball came this time, Mai's energy snapped out a microsecond too late. Instead of bouncing back, the energy ball that she and Naru had been forming for the last few minutes fell into her.

Mai's eyes widened. "Whoops."

And all hell broke loose.

The ghosts leapt for them immediately. Mai barely had a chance to react before Naru shoved her to aside and threw some silver energy at the ghosts. One reached to grab her and Mai saw him freeze momentarily before bursting into will-o'-the-wisps. All of them – every one of them of them in SPR - were exorcizing the ghosts and for once, Mai could help them. The incantation sat at the corner of her mind, and just as she was about to freeze a ghost and exorcise it, at the corner of her eye, she saw the bomber run for Matsuzuki Keito.

"Stop!" Mai shouted, and she pushed a fraction of her powers out to emphasis her demand. Suddenly, she could feel Naru's energy inside her – actually _feel _it, and as she turned around, she realised that every other ghost in the room had frozen too.

Not daring to move now, Mai froze, making sure to send a steady stream of energy towards keeping the ghosts still. The most she'd ever managed on her own was three, and she'd been running high on adrenaline then. During all the times she'd practiced, she'd never managed to freeze more than two at once, and if she did, she couldn't exorcise them on her own. It wouldn't do for the ghosts to unfreeze themselves now become even more infuriated.

"Wow," Bou-san noted from a distance, his eyes widening slightly. "Mai _is_ handy to have around."

Now that was a compliment, but not one that Mai was able to appreciate at this very moment. Instead, she did her best not to move; the last thing she wanted was for her concentration to break.

"Would you hurry?" Mai muttered through gritted teeth. "I'm not sure how much longer I can manage."

**OM**

Two figures stood outside Saito General Hospital, eyes focused on a particular window of the building. Neither moved nor spoke for minutes long, and the silence of the night was eventually broken by the smooth, hum of an incoming vehicle that caused both figures to turn towards it.

A black car stopped by the side of the road and front door opened. A chauffer, dressed from head to toe in black, hastily moved to the back and opened the car door. From it, a black cane first appeared, followed by a western-looking elder – tall, thin, and unsmiling – that was the very image of Death.

He exited the car slowly and as the chauffer moved to close the car door, eyes swept downwards in subservience, the old man straightened his jacket. The two women nodded at him – the teenage girl with respect, the young women with hesitation – before turning back to that particular window.

"How is the Caecilian heiress?" the man rasped, his eyes on the hospital.

The younger of the two women smiled before responding in the same language he spoke. "Not bad at all, grandfather. It looks as though Ayami Domjouji has chosen well."

"We will need the Peerless's help in finishing the spell, though," the old man noted. "It doesn't look as though her heiress will be able to perform this kind of magic."

The older woman scoffed. "The girl has potential, but she can hardly be called the next First Lady. Compared to Ayami's, her powers are nothing."

The girl turned over to the young woman, frowning. "Compared to Ayami's," she reminded her, "_your_ powers are nothing."

The woman bristled at the insult, her eyes temporarily glowing red. "That little bitch was just lucky to have the father and mother she did. Without that, she never would have been blessed with Caecilia."

The girl's eyebrows arched at the obvious implication of those words. "If Caecilia was the only reason why Ayami Domjouji was powerful then we would have initiated our plan a long time ago. Don't let your hatred for her cloud your judgement. If you run in there blind, Caecilia will knock the wind out of you before the Peerless even registers your presence."

"That's where you come in," the woman said, turning over to the girl. "Or are you telling me that you're not going to be there like you promised?"

Anyone could read the challenge in the woman's tone. "I will, but I won't let you ruin _our_ plans. We've worked too hard and we can't afford any liabilities."

"Are you threatening me?" the woman demanded.

"Do I need to?" the girl asked sharply in reply.

"That's enough," the elder cut in, his tone slightly raised. The two stopped their argument and for a moment, silence ensued.

Then, with a scoff, the woman turned and left.

The girl shook her head. "She's going to ruin our plans," the girl said, watching the departing figure of the woman temporarily.

The old man coughed before replying. "If she becomes a liability, we can easily dispose of her. It will be fine, child. After all, if the Peerless was so easy to kill, her own mother would have managed it. I doubt Yoshiko will succeed where Kaia has failed."

The girl let out a sigh with her nose before nodding. "I suppose you're right," she conceded. "What are you doing here anyway, Grandfather? I thought you were with in Australia."

The man coughed again, this time a little more seriously. His granddaughter moved to rub his back with soothing motions.

When the coughs finally ceased, the girl let out a slight sigh of dismay. "It's getting worse." She moved to meet her grandfather's eyes. "Does it really have to be the Peerless who does the spell? I don't think you can sustain that boy for much longer."

The man shook his head, still leaning heavily on his cane. "Only Ayami Domjouji could summon enough magic to perform the spell. Keep an eye on her heiress. We need Mai Taniyami to be our bait if we want the Peerless to fall for it."

The girl nodded once. The elder's heavily wrinkled eyes crinkled more in thought.

"Are you ready for the summit?" the elder asked his granddaughter.

The girl shrugged. "As ready as I can be."

He nodded once, his brief smile revealing his several missing teeth. The woman shrugged, and together, the two of them turned back to the hospital window yet again, watching as though they could see what was going on in there.

**OM**

The beeping had gotten worse.

She'd thought that after exorcising the ghosts, the sound would cease. If anything, it had actually grown louder, bringing on a headache so intense that Mai was actually sweating from the pain. She felt as though she'd been spending hours, not minutes, hearing the beeping at this volume.

Naru had left her here on the chair, and now, she could hear him talking to Doctor Matsuzaki on the side. When she'd almost collapsed before, he'd pushed her onto one of the chairs outside one of the private rooms,

This wasn't going to help, though. Mai didn't like it, but now, she was ready to call Ayami for help. No one could figure out why she kept hearing the sound. Even Lin-san didn't know. Bou-san and Ayako had told her that they hadn't seen any case like this one before and John-san had returned to his room quickly to consult his books. Her cousin, Mai realised with a sigh, was the only one left.

Mai raised her head, looking around for a moment before a particular door caught her eyes.

This was, Mai noted with a thudding heart, the door that Gene had been watching her from during her vision on the first day. Before she knew what she was doing, Mai found herself in front of the door, her fingers wrapped around the doorknob as she stared at the glass before her.

From here, she could see that there was a single, occupied bed in the room, next to an array of hospital machinery that Mai had never bothered to learn the names of.

Was it significant? Was the fact that Gene had stood at this particular door actually important? It could have been coincidence, but Mai's instinct screamed otherwise.

Well, there was really only one way to find out.

Mai pushed the door open and took her first steps into the room.

What she sighted caused her entire body to fix in shock.

Mai's eyes widened, horrified, as her brain froze along with her body. It took a moment for her faculties to return to her before she was able to drag her feet over to the bed and look down at the person beneath the sheets, next to the monitor.

The beeping in her head, Mai noted absently, had stopped, and along with it, the headache had disappeared too. But the beeping sound she heard _now_ was identical to the tones that she'd been hearing for the last two days.

The beeping. It didn't come from the sound of any bomb. It had nothing to do with the other ghosts at all.

All this time – she'd been mistaken. The beeping was something else entirely.

A heart machine.

Lying there on the bed, beside the machine, was the very image of Naru. Dressed in the generic light blue hospital gown, with countless tubes attached to his still body, his eyes were closed almost peacefully as the machine beeped away beside him.

He looked sickly – lifeless, even, and the thought of Naru ever being that ill caused chills to run down Mai's spine. This wasn't Naru, of course. Naru was outside still, talking to Doctor Matsuzaki, which could only mean one thing.

By the looks of it, Mai had just found Gene.

* * *

**25th September, 2013: **How was that, eh? :D :D :D I don't know if it was a cliffhanger for you guys, but I quite liked this chapter. It's one of my favourites so far. It was written in less than a day, too. The next chapter, however... sigh. I've got bits and bits, and I've got it planned - now I just have to write it.

In case it wasn't obvious enough, yeah - Gene's actually alive. Well, he is at the moment. This is pretty much the most important chapter in Cursed. The next chapter is more of a "what should we do next" before we have the "Epilogue" and the final segment of the story! Man, I hope I finish this series before the end of the year.

**Please leave a review on your way out.**


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